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Can the rest of Britain compete with London?

The world economy is changing radically but the British state is largely unreformed, trapped in a different timezone

Tim Montgomerie

March 6 2014, 12:01am, The Times

Seven years ago London was hit by the economic equivalent of a force 12 gale. The financial services sector that helped to power the boom years experienced a hurricane-strength lashing. As economic waves larger than anything we’d seen since the 1930s crashed and then retreated from across our capital city they left behind huge debts, discredited banks and a great deal of soul-searching.

Yet remarkably quickly London is now back on its pre-crash trajectory. It’s growing faster than any other part of the UK. Above its streets cranes fill the skyline. Below those same streets an underground network is bursting at the seams as it ferries people from every part of the world to every part of the city. London is more productive, more vibrant…